PORT RICHEY, Fla. — As we monitor Tropical Storm Helene and its potential impacts on the Tampa Bay Area, people who lived through Hurricane Idalia last summer are on edge. They are worried about similarities between the two storms and the possibility of a storm surge.
"If you don't do something, you're going to get it,” said Howard Rabe. “We’ve been through a lot of these in all the years we’ve been here.”
Rabe doesn't take any chances with storms.
"I can tell you in the ‘No Name Storm,’ that house there had over five foot in it. The house that used to be here had about seven,” said Rabe.
His home in Port Richey, near Bay Boulevard, is in the same area that flooded after Hurricane Idalia last August.
Our cameras captured Idalia's extensive impact in that area, with roads turned into rivers.
"I had my shutters up and the doors and stuff sealed, so we had no water in the house,” said Rabe.
Rabe pulled out those same hurricane shutters and flood barriers on Tuesday, hardening his home, making sure he's doing everything he can to protect it.
"It seals against concrete. You shove it down,” Rabe said while highlighting the flood barriers around his home. “I only came this high because if it gets higher than this, we got some real problems.”
Just a few streets over, it was a different story for Rick Way last year.
"You see the proximity of where we are to the water. There are other people across the street and elsewhere on this street that got a foot to three feet of water,” said Way. "It didn't matter whether it was three feet or six inches. It still got us."
In advance of another storm, Way says Tuesday afternoon will be all about getting ready, like sandbagging, preparing for the worst, but hoping to be spared.
“If you're a godly person, pray because I don't really need this,” said Way. “Neither do any of us.”
A state report says hundreds of frail elderly nursing home residents were stacked side by side, head to toe in a small church with no working air conditioning or refrigerator during Hurricane Helene.
